NAVISS... Where bridges were built

Who? -20 participants in addition to the trainers and the
organizers from 7 different countries: Tunisia, Slovakia,
Morocco, Egypt, Czech, Poland and Hungary:

Why? – NAVISS: North African Visegrad Summer School

Well, those were the circumstances in which we lived for a week
as participants of the North African Visegrad Summer School. A
summer school organized by PDCS (Partners for Democratic Change
Slovakia) and AFC (Women and citizenship association- Kef,
Tunisia)

Without any exaggeration, I would describe this summer school as
one of the richest experiences I enjoyed until now.

If I would have to summarize the mission of NAVISS in one
sentence, I would simply say: “Building bridges!”
Building bridges to the future, to the past... Building bridges
between different cultures, countries and communities.

With different activities, we had the chance to explore ourselves
and our hidden capacities. For me, I knew new things about myself
as much as I discovered about other participants. During one
week, we have been writing down our dreams, discussing our
cultures’ principles and habits, planning our future projects and
sharing our knowledge.

From workshops and lectures to group challenges and an
intercultural night, in fact, even little discussions near the
pool or during lunch were an opportunity to learn more and
exchange ideas.

Building bridges through time: One of the activities was
about sharing one quote you have been told by one of your family
or community members. Every participant wrote his quote on a
small paper to put it in a box and after mixing all papers, each
one of us picked randomly one paper.

For me, I wrote a quote that I believe in so much and it says in
Arabic “الدوام ينقب الرخام”. It means in general perseverance
pays off and with continuous work even solid rocks could be
shaped. On the other hand, I had a quote from Egypt and it meant
that as long as you have energy you have to keep working so that
you don’t regret losing it once your death is close.

With wisdom and curiosity, we traveled quickly to the past not
only through our elders' words and quotes but through childhood
memories too.

During another activity, we wrote down our dream jobs and super
powers we wished to have when we were children. And, believe me
that was both surprising and nostalgic.

And now time to switch to the future! No, there were no aliens or
super heroes. Our last task was to write down an article
published in a famous newspaper in 20 years (or even more)
summarizing our journey and showing each one of us as an example
of a successful leader or whatever your dream is about.

However, writing down your vision in details and describing
different milestones you imagined is a deep exercise even though
it was done quickly. After publishing the articles in a sort of
gallery, every participant kept his article so that he or she
will find the inspiration and the necessary push when he/she
reads it back home. I recommend everyone to practice this
exercise and you’ll notice that your vision is getting way
clearer.

Building Bridges between cultures:

There was no time when we said 'let’s share things about our
countries right now'. It was more like a continuous exchange. We
discussed the known stereotypes, what will always be stacked to
our minds and bring it with us from our native countries. I even
learnt new words from different languages.

Accepting differences and being open minded are the best
qualities needed to ensure similar programs’ success. In one
country we find differences from one community to another and
even from one citizen to another. Yet, those differences are our
treasure and uniqueness and this is the only way in which we have
to see them.

We may be far away from each other geographicaly, but we’re
closer than we could ever imagine. When the trainers challenged
us to make a group work that brings change to the community
without any previous preparations, all we thought about was
bringing joy and showing people how much we care about them.

It doesn’t matter where you have been born or lived. Humanity
will always gather us.

During my last post, I said that learning through reflection is
my best tool to acquire lessons from my experiences. And writing
this post helped me remember what I learned during this summer
school. I recommend this method to everyone. Write down your
thoughts about any experience you had, you’ll be surprised of the
things that you kept in mind.

If you’ve ever used this technique or have another one, please
feel free to share it with me in a comment down below!

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